Bio

Carol Abohatab brings over four decades of performing, teaching, and choreographing to both the Dance and Color Guard/Pageantry arenas. In Pageantry, she trained and choreographed for the Santa Clara Vanguard winter guard for its 11-year tenure, as well as Bluecoats Indoor, San Jose Raiders World Guard, Emerald Marquis, and State Street Review. She’s also had the privilege to work with many other color guards, some of which include Northview, Arcadia, Mission Viejo, Chino, Leigh, and Miamisburg High Schools,  Fantasia, Pride, and Opus 10, as well as numerous Drum Corps.

Color Guard prompted her to further explore dance, earning both a BS (University of Wisconsin-Madison) and MFA (Mills College - Oakland) in Performance, Choreography, and Physical Education/Kinesiology. She also studied extensively with Murray Louis and Alwin Nikolais in New York, completing their Professional Training Program. After receiving her Masters degree, she formed the Vanguard Dance Company, which allowed aspiring color guard dancers to dance side-by-side with professionals. Along with others in the activity, she has spent a significant amount of time refining dance techniques, helping to make them a genuine part of color guard choreography; in turn, this has helped make color guard a respected part of the dance world. She also created and directed Children's Adventures in Movement, an outreach program under the Santa Clara Vanguard (now Vanguard Music and Performing Arts - VMAPA).

Carol has studied with and performed in the works of Janice Garrett, Li Ciao Ping, Joe Goode, Alwin Nikolais, and Murray Louis, and has taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and in New York City. She currently teaches Modern, Jazz, Choreography, Repertory, Improvisation, and Dance Appreciation at San Jose City College, and Yoga and Pilates at Evergreen Valley College. With her solo endeavor, OpenSpacesDance, which is based on gesture, improvisation, and story telling, she has completed five Artist-In-Residence programs in Italy, with a site-specific video project for Slow Road, in conjunction with La Macina di San Cresci and the University of Florence which came out in December.

Carol is an RYT 200 Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance, having completed her 200 hour training at Breathe Together Yoga. Carol served on the WGI Steering Committee from 2009 - 2022, and has published a dance training video set available at wgi.org. In 2023, Carol received the honorable Hall of Fame Award from Winter Guard International.